The Cave Twins
Informations
| Publié par | apryo |
| Publié le | 08 décembre 2010 |
| Nombre de lectures | 16 |
| Langue | English |
| Poids de l'ouvrage | 1 Mo |
Extrait
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cave Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Cave Twins Author: Lucy Fitch Perkins Illustrator: Lucy Fitch Perkins Release Date: March 28, 2009 [EBook #28425] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAVE TWINS ***
Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
Lucy Fitch Perkins "The Cave Twins"
Introduction. Prehistoric Man. This is a story about things that happened ages and ages ago, before any of us were born, or our great-great-grandfathers either, for that matter. It was so very long ago that there were no houses, or farms, or roads from one place to another, and there was not a single city, or a town, or even a village in the whole earth. There was just the great, round world, all fresh and new, and covered with growing things; and there were wild beasts of all kinds in the forests, and fishes of all kinds in the seas, and all sorts of birds and flying creatures in the air. Besides all these wonderful things in the new, new world, there was Man. He was quite new too. He didn’t know much of anything about the world. All that he really knew was that there was a world, and that he was in it, and that there were fierce wild animals in it too, which would kill him and eat him if he didn’t kill them first. And he knew very well that he was not as swift as the deer, or as big as the elephant, or as strong as the lion, or as fierce as the tiger, and it seemed to him as if he hadn’t much chance to stay alive at all in a world so full of terrible creatures who wanted to eat him up.
But this Prehistoric Man was very brave, and he could do two things which none of the other creatures could do—he could laugh and he could think. One day, he sat down on a rock, and took his head between his hands and thought and thought, and by and by he lifted up his head and said to his wife,—for of course he had a wife,—“I have it, my dear. If we are not as strong as the wild beasts, we must be a great deal more clever.” So he got right up off the rock and set about being clever. And so did his wife. They were so clever that they hid themselves in trees and rocks where the wild beasts could not find them. And they found out the secret of fire. The other creatures could not find out the secret of fire to save their lives, and they were dreadfully afraid of it. Then the Man and his wife made weapons out of stones, and bones, and they made dishes out of mud, and though these things weren’t a bit like our weapons or our dishes, they got along very well with them for many years. In the earliest times of all, the Woman hunted and trapped the wild creatures, and fished, all by herself, but by and by she began to let the Man do the hunting and bring home the game, while she stayed in the cave house and kept the hearth-fire bright and took care of the children. She cooked the food that he brought home, and she made needles out of bones and sewed skins together for clothes for her husband and the children and herself. After a long time she began to plant seeds of the wild things that she found were good to eat, and to raise food out of the ground. All these things they did, and many more that had never been done before,—and because they were so much more clever than all the beasts of the forest, the Prehistoric Man and his prehistoric wife lived a long time in a little peace and more happiness than you might at first think possible. They taught their children all the clever things they had thought out, and these children, when they grew up, taught them to their children, and this went on for hundreds and thousands of years. Each generation learned new things and taught them to the next, until now we have houses and churches and villages and cities dotted over the whole earth, and there are roads going from everywhere to everywhere else. There are railroads and steam-cars and telegraph and telephone lines, and printing-presses, so that to-day everybody knows more about the very ends of the earth than Prehistoric Man could possibly know about what was happening fifty miles away from him. And all these things we have to-day because the Prehistoric Man and the Prehistoric Woman did their part bravely and well when the earth was young. This is a story about that far-off time. If you don’t believe it’s true, every word of it, just get out your atlas and find the places on the map. They are every one of them there.
Chapter One.
Grannie and the Twins.
One bright morning of early spring, long ages ago, the sun peered through the trees on the edge of a vast forest, and sent a shaft of yellow sunlight right into the mouth of a great, dark cave. In front of the cave a bright fire was burning, and on a rock beside it sat an old woman. In her lap was a piece of birch-bark, and on the bark was a heap of acorns. She was roasting them in the ashes and eating them. At her right hand, within easy reach, there was a pile of broken sticks and tree-branches, and every now and then the old woman put on fresh wood and stirred the coals to keep the fire bright.
A little path ran from the front of the cave where the old woman sat down the sloping hillside to a blue river, and the morning sun shining across it made a bridge of dazzling light from shore to shore. Beyond the river there were green fields and forests, and beyond the forests high hills over which the sun climbed every morning. What lay beyond those far blue hills neither the old woman nor any of the clan of the Black Bear had the slightest idea. Everything seemed quiet and peaceful on that spring morning so long ago. The trees were beginning to turn green and little plants were already pushing their way through the carpet of dead leaves. A robin lit upon the branches of a tree above the cave and sang his morning song. There was no other sound except the sizzling of a wet stick on the fire, and the snapping noise made by the old woman when she took a roasted acorn from the fire and cracked it with her teeth. The old woman was not pretty to look at. Her face was as brown as leather and covered with wrinkles, and her hair hung about it in ragged grey locks. It was no wonder that her hair was rough and ragged, for it had never been combed her whole life long, and she was quite old—oh, as old as forty, maybe! But she really couldn’t help her hair being like that any more than she could help being forty, because there was not a single comb yet made in the whole world! It was a mystery how she cracked the nuts so well, because she had only a few teeth left in her mouth. For clothing she had nothing but the skin of a deer fastened over her left shoulder by a thorn, and tied around her waist with a leather thong. Although she seemed to be thinking of nothing but her nuts, the little bright eyes of the old woman kept close watch in every direction, and her ears were quick to hear every unusual sound. If a twig snapped, or there was a rustling noise in the underbrush, she was ready in an instant to fling fresh dry sticks on the fire and make it glow red against the black opening of the cave.
She knew that no wild animal, however fierce and hungry, would dare come near the leaping flames. Yet watchful as she was, she did not see two children who were creeping stealthily toward her, over the great rocks which sheltered the mouth of the cave. They were a boy and a girl, and from their size they must have been about eight years old. They both had bright twinkling eyes and flaming red hair, and were dressed alike in skins of red foxes of almost the same colour. You could tell at a glance that they were twins, but it would have puzzled any one to tell whether they were both boys or both girls, or one of each kind. They came down over the rocks so quietly that not even the quick ears of the old woman heard the faintest sound. When they had almost reached the ground, they stopped, and at the same instant opened their mouths and howled exactly like two young wolves!
The noise was so sudden and so near that the old woman never thought of her fire at all. She simply screamed and fell right over backwards into the cave. Then she rolled over and scuttled on all fours out of sight in the darkness as fast as she could go. The acorns from her la flew in every direction and rolled down the hillside. The
boy and girl jumped to the ground, shrieking with laughter. In a moment the old woman was back again in the door of the cave. She had a stout stick in her hand and she looked very angry. She shook the stick at the Twins and scolded them so fast that the sound of it was like the chattering of an angry squirrel in a tree-top. Now, of course, I cannot tell you just the words she used, but, translated into English, this is what she said:—
“You horrid little catamounts, if I catch you, I’ll teach you better manners! I’ll give you such a taste of this stick that you’ll not need more till the river runs dry.” The Twins sprang up, still shrieking with laughter, and danced about the fire just out of reach of the woman’s stick. “But you can’t catch us,” they screamed. Their red locks of hair flew about in the wind as they danced, until it looked almost as if red flames were bursting from their heads. The old woman glared at them helplessly. “Dance away,” she cried, “dance away, you red-headed rascals! I shan’t need to put sticks on the fire while you are here. Your red hair would scare away the sabre-toothed tiger himself! No wonder you are not afraid to run alone in the forest! With such heads on you, you are as safe as if you were in the heart of the cave.”
Just then she saw her acorns all spilled on the ground, and her rage broke out afresh. “Pick them up, you little rats! They are the last of my winter’s store, and it will be four moons yet before they will be ripe again.” Down went the children on their hands and knees, and began to gather up the scattered nuts. Young as they were, they knew the value of food. They also knew the taste of Grannie’s stick. In those days food could be found only at the risk of life itself and was not to be thrown away while hunger lasted. Besides, the hunting had not been good for some time. The reindeer had gone farther north, and the great herds of bison had not yet come back from the warmer regions, where they ranged in winter. There were wild beasts of many other kinds in the forest, but the hunters of the clan had not brought home meat for several days. This was one reason why the children had ventured so far into the forest. Most of the time they and the other children of the clan stayed near the cave under the watchful eye of the old woman, while their fathers and mothers went hunting. “Now, don’t be cross, old Grannie-sit-by-the-fire!” cried the girl. At least, I think it was the girl, but the Twins looked so exactly alike I can’t be quite sure. “We’ll pick up your nuts for you. And if you’ll put your stick down, we’ll give you something we brought for you.” The old woman’s face softened. You might almost have thought there was the beginning of a smile in the corners of her mouth, but she only said, “I know your tricks, worthless ones! You have brought me nothing but a fright and a tumble in the ashes ” . The girl poured the acorns she had gathered into the piece of birch-bark which served the old woman as a plate, and danced over to the mouth of the cave. She saucily took the stick out of Grannie’s hand and flung it on the fire, and then led her back to the stone seat. “Go along and get it, Firetop,” she called. I know it was the girl who said this, because it was ’
before, and came down again slowly, carrying something in each hand. He stood before the old woman with his hands behind him. “Guess, Grannie, guess!” cried Firefly. By this time, the smile had got out of the corners of Grannie’s mouth and had spread all over her face. “Roots,” she said. “Wrong,” shouted the children. “Guess again.” “Spruce gum ” . “Wrong again,” laughed the Twins. Grannie thought a while this time. Then she said, “Snails.” “No, no, no,” the Twins said both together; and then Firetop slowly brought his hands round in front of him and showed the old woman four large bird’s eggs. You should have seen Grannie’s face then! It was all wreathed in smiles, and when she smiled she wasn’t so bad to look at after all. Almost nobody is for that matter. She took the eggs from Firetop’s hands and covered them carefully in the ashes. “We’ll roast them,” she said. “I’ve had nothing to eat but acorns for three days past. Now, tell me where you have been, and how you found the eggs.” “We were hungry,” explained Firetop, “and all the big people had gone off hunting, and we thought we’d go too. We thought we knew where we could find some roots. So we hid ourselves and waited until Robin and Blackbird and Squaretoes had gone down to the river to hunt frogs, and then we ran back into the woods.” Robin and Blackbird and Squaretoes were the other children of the clan. Firefly could never stay quiet for very long and now she broke into the story.
“Yes, and we found some roots, too,” she said. “We were just eating them when from a hazel bush right in front of us we heard a loud snort! We didn’t wait to dig any more roots, I tell you! There was a chestnut tree nearby, and we grabbed a limb and swung ourselves up just in time. It wasn’t only one, it wasthreewild boars that rushed out of the bushes, and the biggest boar had tusks as long as this.” Firefly held up a stick about eight inches long, as she spoke. “It’s lucky we were up in the tree, for they were all hungry too, and they looked as if they thought Firetop and I would taste very good,” she laughed. “Then Firetop teased them. He hung down from the limb and tickled their noses with a long stick. My, but they were mad!” “Yes,” said Firetop, “they looked just as mad as you did, when we scared you, Grannie. ” “I wonder one look at you didn’t scare them to death,” said Grannie, “because animals are so afraid of fire! I am used to the flames on your heads, but if I were to come upon you for the first time I think I’d climb a tree myself! Or else I should think the woods were on fire and run away.” Grannie poked Firefly in the ribs and laughed at her own joke. “Maybe our red hair helped some,” said Firefly, “for pretty soon they all three turned and ran grunting off through the woods.”
“And then,” said Firetop, “we thought we’d come back by the tree path. We went out on the limb of the chestnut as far as we could go, and swung into the big oak tree that stood next. There are a lot of oak trees together there and we were going along from one to the other, when there was a loud whirring noise and a big bird flew out of the top branches right over our heads! We looked up and saw the nest. It was made of sticks. I got the eggs and handed them down to Firefly, and then we came home.” “You didn’t come all the way by the tree path and carry the eggs, did you?” cried Grannie admiringly. “Oh, no,” said Firefly. “The eggs were too big to carry in our mouths. So Firetop dropped to the ground and I handed the eggs down to him. Then we ran back home as fast as we could.” “You will be as great hunters as your father and mother one of these days if you keep on,” said Grannie. “And no one in the whole clan can do better than they can. My, my, I can remember when your father was a boy, how he used to hunt eggs! That’s how he got the name of Hawk-Eye. He could find eggs, and other things too, where nobody else could find anything at all. How he could swing along through the trees! No wild creatures could ever get the start of him. And then your mother! She could run faster than the wind could blow. She wasn’t easily scared, I can tell you. She had always her legs to depend upon! I’ve seen her run from a mad buck so fast that
herself into a tree and then hung by her legs safe above his head and teased the buck crazy because he could not reach her. Ah! She was a wild one in those days, and well she earned her name of Limberleg!” “I’m sure the eggs must be done by this time,” said Firetop. Grannie reached down and poked the ashes away from the eggs. They were very hot, but her hands were so tough and horny that she could even handle live coals. She gave one egg to Firefly. Firefly took it in her hand but her hands were not quite so tough as Grannie’s and it
burned her like everything! She dropped it on the ground, squealing with pain. It was cooked so hard that it did not spill, though the shell was broken. Grannie laughed. “Aha,” she said, “I’m even with you now for giving me such a scare.” “Ho,” boasted Firetop, “that’s nothing. Watch me! I guess if you can handle them I can.” He reached down and picked up an egg and held it in his hand. It was just as hot as a coal of fire, but he pretended it didn’t hurt him. He cracked and ate it in two bites, and though I’m sure it must have burned a red path all the way to his stomach, he never said a word. But when Firefly wasn’t looking he did suck the air into his mouth to cool his tongue! “Grannie can have the other egg, can’t she, Firetop, because we scared her so,” said Firefly, when they had each eaten one. “You may scare me every day that you bring me bird’s eggs,” said Grannie. Grannie took the last egg from the ashes and was just cracking it when suddenly there was a shout which made them all jump. Those were pretty jumpy times, I can tell you, for a new sound might mean almost any kind of danger. There were so many wild beasts in the forest that no one could feel safe a single minute unless he was deep in a cave. Even then the cave had to have an entrance so narrow that no man-hunting animal could get into it, or else a fire must be kept burning before it to frighten them away. The moment they heard the sound, Grannie dropped her egg and sprang to her feet. Firetop and Firefly popped into the cave and were out of sight in an instant. Grannie threw fresh sticks on the fire, and as it blazed up, she looked fearfully about in every direction. Now she heard another sound besides the shouts and screams of children’s voices. From far away down the river came a long low roar and the tramp, tramp of many feet. A group of children came tearing up the path toward the cave, shouting at the top of their lungs, “The bison are coming, the bison are coming!” Grannie took up the cry. “The bison are coming, the bison are coming!” she shouted into the cave, and out tumbled Firetop and Firefly in the twinkling of an eye. “Where, where?” they screamed. “There there in the river bottom ” anted S uaretoes the bi est of the bo s. “We were
hunting for frogs and all of a sudden there was a roar,—at first so faint we could hardly hear it,—then far down the river we saw them coming! Run, run to the big rock, and you can see them too.” Grannie threw a great heap of dry wood upon the fire and ran with the children to the big rock, which lay part way down the path toward the river. From the top of this rock the whole valley was spread out before them like a map. Squaretoes pointed toward the south, and there in the green marshy land bordering the river were hundreds and hundreds of great dark hairy beasts. They were running, and as they ran, they made a low roaring sound that was frightful to hear. “We shall have fresh meat to-night,” said Grannie to the children. “The herd has been frightened. I could not see the leaders. Some of our hunters have surely found them.” They stood on the rock until the great herd had thundered by and was out of sight around a bend in the bluff. Then Grannie said, “Come, let us go back to the fire and gather plenty of fuel, so we can cook the meat when it comes, and have a great feast ” .
Chapter Two. The Bison Feast.
For hours Grannie and the children worked together to get a huge pile of fuel ready for a feast which they hoped to have at night. It was something like getting ready for Thanksgiving. “It is likely that old Sabre-tooth will be having a feast too,” said Grannie. “He is as glad as any of us to see the bison come back. Maybe now he won’t catch any bad children who stray too far into the wood.” You see, the fierce sabre-toothed tiger was the beast they feared most of all, but they always had to be on the watch for wolves and hyenas, and for the dreadful cave bear as well. There were wild horses, too, and elephants, and mammoths, and lions. Grannie had to keep telling the children about these dangers, just as our mothers tell us to-day to keep out of the way of trolley-cars and steam-engines and automobiles. Only trolley-cars and steam-engines don’t run after us and stick their heads right into our front doors and try to eat us up, as the wild creatures did in those days. It seems to us now that no one could possibly have had any happiness in a world so full of dangers, but you see Grannie and all the rest of the clan did not know that life could be any different. Just because there were so many dangers, they grew brave to meet them, and a brave man among dangers is far happier than a coward in a safe place. So perhaps they had just as good a time living as we do, after all. By the time the children had gathered a heap of wood large enough to cook the biggest kind of a feast, it was afternoon. There was nothing in the cave to eat, and they grew hungrier and hungrier, but there were no si ns of any hunters. Shadows began to gather in the woods. Now
and then there was a cry of some night bird, or of a distant wolf. These were lonely sounds. Firefly began to be discouraged. “Suppose they shouldn’t bring home any meat after all,” she said. “Then we’ll just have to go hungry,” said Grannie. Firetop laid his hand on his stomach and groaned. “Mennever complain of such things,” said Grannie. Firetop took his hand off his stomach at once and made believe he had just coughed a little. You see the cave people taught their children to bear hunger and pain without making any fuss about it. “I tell you what we could do,” said Grannie. “If we had some water, we could have a place to boil the meat all ready when the hunters come back. Who’ll go for water?” “I’ll go,” said Firetop. “So will I,” said Blackbird. “And I,” said Squaretoes. They were all boys. Robin and Firefly were the only little girls in the clan. “Get the gourds and the pig-skin and run along, then,” said Grannie. “Keep a sharp lookout, for ou know the wild beasts will soon be out for their ni ht huntin .”
© 2010-2024 YouScribe